Tags
Asparabus, Asparagus, Barrie Hill Farms, Bernie Solymár, blueberries, County of Simcoe, Foodies On Foot, Foodland Ontario, Ontario Asparagus, raspberries, Steven Hellmann, strawberries, sweet corn, Tourism Barrie
I was invited by Steven Hellmann from Foodies on Foot to attend a tour of Barrie Hill Farms. The tour was sponsored by Ontario Asparagus, Tourism Barrie, Foodland Ontario and the County of Simcoe.
We boarded the “Asparabus” #asparabus at 9 a.m. in downtown Toronto and made a quick stop in Woodbridge to pick up some additional passengers. Steven provided us with some amazing Nutella treats, fresh coffee, water, music and a trivia contest. (click on any photo to see a larger version)
The “Asparabus” #asparabus and our host Steven Hellmann
Greeting us at Barrie Hill Farms was the executive director of Ontario Asparagus, Bernie Solymár.
Executive director of Ontario Asparagus, Bernie Solymár
Bernie welcomed our group and introduced us to the owner of Barrie Hill Farms, Morris Gervais.
Morris Gervais, owner of Barrie Hill Farms
Morris gave us the history of the farm, which was started by his parents in 1968. At that time the main crop was tobacco. Tobacco was replaced by strawberries in 1979 and then they planted blueberries, raspberries and asparagus. With over 40 acres of blueberries, Barrie Hill Farms is one of the largest highbush blueberry farms in Ontario.
Morris in the highbush blueberry field
Blueberry blossoms
Bees are crucial for pollination
Morris showed us his field of sweet corn, which has a layer of biodegradable plastic that helps get the corn growing faster.
Morris grows 17 acres of asparagus. By comparison, the largest asparagus producers in Ontario plant 350 acres.
On our way to the asparagus fields
Steven Hellmann from Foodies On Foot in the asparagus field
The asparagus is picked by hand, and Morris employs labourers from Mexico. Morris speaks Spanish, which enables him to effectively communicate with his workers.
Back-breaking work!
Our hosts from Tourism Barrie and the County of Simcoe
Bernie Solymár
Next we visited the area where the asparagus is banded into one-pound bundles and boxed ready for shipping.
The one-pound bundles are banded by hand
As the workers took a lunch break, it was time for us to have lunch as well. Morris has a chef working for him who prepared a fabulous lunch for us. Chef Les started us out with a delicious asparagus soup, followed by a shaved asparagus spring salad and then grilled asparagus tacos. Dessert was an amazing blueberry pie. The recipes can be found by clicking here.
Chef Les
Shaved asparagus spring salad
Beautiful blueberry pie for dessert
Before boarding the Asparabus for our return to Toronto, we were invited into their retail store, which contained a variety of fresh and packaged goodies.
Bernie presented each of us with an Ontario Asparagus cooler bag containing fresh Ontario asparagus, asparagus pasta, asparagus salsa, pickled asparagus, and asparagus smokey antipasto.
It was an amazing day, and my thanks go out to Steven, Bernie and Morris and our other hosts.
The “Asparabus” #asparabus ready for our trip back to Toronto
